Twenty-seven Little Flags

Twenty-seven Little Flags. Village in the City. , Just like Mount Pleasant, Bancroft School is known for its ethnic and racial diversity. "at one of the spring fairs in the early 1970s, we asked people to bring native dishes, and I bought 27 little flags to mark the food," parent Gloria Mitchell remembered. , , The original eight-room Bancroft Elementary School was built on this corner in 1924, after a building boom added hundreds of rowhouses to Mount Pleasant. On the day it opened, Bancroft was already too small. Nine years later a new 17-room wing stretched downtown Newton Street, soon followed by an auditorium and main entry. The school honors George Bancroft (1800-1891), a historian, former secretary of the Navy, and founder of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. In the late 1960s, Mount Pleasant Neighbors Association launched a neighborhood festival on the Bancroft playground, and dozens of other community events have enjoyed the school's accommodations. , , In the summer of 1962, R&B star Bo Diddley lived with his wife Kay and baby Terri in an apartment at 1724 Newton Street, across from Bancroft School. The neighborhood's central location, affordable rents, and nearby music clubs on Mt. Pleasant and 14th streets all attracted artists and rising performers. Diddley connected with some neighborhood teenagers whom he'd heard "singing on the corner, at least we thought we were singing," recalled former area resident Arthur Wong. "He encouraged us" and invited the boys to talk music and occasionally ride in his convertible. It was an experience they never forgot.